Friday, May 09, 2014:  Greetings from Uganda!  Our plan was for the group to split up, going separate ways and covering more ground.  Lisa, David, Karen and Diana headed out to Muko for the annual general meeting, from which Baker would return with Moses and Tito.  He then picked up Dave, Elizabeth, and Barbara for a trip out to Lake Bunyonyi to visit various plots associated with the Center for Rural Development.  We were supposed to see Dr. Wilson again, but he was unable to join us.  Escorted by the “mobilizer” from the farmers’ cooperative we were visiting, we crossed the lake in a wooden boat, which seemed to serve as a water bus since we stopped a couple of times to pick up people as we went.  We were shown around plots at Murandi and Kashambya demonstrating efforts in preventing soil erosion, reversing soil exhaustion and evaluating the effectiveness of different forms of fertilization, etc.  Everywhere we went we were greeted with singing and dancing which we very much appreciated. After the tours we answered questions about ACT and spoke with the farmers.  We gathered some good information, but it wasn’t exactly what we expected. After a good lunch overlooking the lake we headed back to the hotel.

Meanwhile, out at the center the first annual meeting of ACT Uganda was held.   The meeting was scheduled to start at 9:00 it started at 10:30 with about 25 people and by 11; 30 there were about 80 attendees.  This is what Generous termed Uganda time.  The meeting was being held in the front yard of the center until the rain started.  If you can imagine 80+ persons sitting on a porch measuring 20x25 you have an idea of how crowded we were.  The meeting lasted 3 hours, with numerous accolades given to ACT USA for our support of Uganda and the orphans in particular.  At the end of the meeting the group was allowed to ask questions of us. One guardian stated that when her son receives letters from his sponsors she cannot read them, and she cannot read his report cards.  Her wish is that ACT conduct adult education classes, as she said she will be our first student.  Others continued to thank us and Generous, Josiah and Alexander for what they are doing for the community. 

Meanwhile, the contractor continued to work on the Empowerment Center, the ceiling in Michelle’s room will be finished tomorrow, and construction of the shower addition will begin on Monday.  We have established the best internet access possible by creating an outside location for the phone card by using a 16 foot cable.  With the cable staff can now sit inside the training room and have access to a strong 2g signal.  Before we leave we hope to establish when the 2g tower will be converted to 3g which would allow skyping from the USA.

Tomorrow is our last scheduled day in the village as we will wrap up our efforts and say goodbye to the villagers.